“The  7 Biggest  Most Costly Mistakes  Made  When  Starting  Your Online  Business!”  

First step is in knowing the end result and understanding the thought process and drives of  a lifestyle business model…

Would you identify and call yourself an entrepreneur?

The road to success is paved with tests…

So you’ve got to believe in yourself above the rest.

A lifestyle business is typically set-up and run primarily with the aim of sustaining a particular level of comfortable income and no more…

This is the foundation from which to enjoy a particular lifestyle.

A lifestyle entrepreneur focuses more on the life rewards provided to people that enjoy and have a passion for what they are doing.

Not  doing enough  market  research…

As  lifestyle business entrepreneurs  we fall  in  love  with an idea…

And fantasize about  how  great our products  are  going  to  sell.

They say, just  build  a  better  mousetrap  and  they will  come.

In  the  online  world it’s  like  waiting all  night  to catch a tooth  fairy.

It’s  just  not  going  to  happen…

Most  entrepreneurs  start  an  online  business  with  the belief  that their idea  is  going  to be  worth  millions  right  out  of  the  gate.

What if  you  do  the market  research?

What if you look at  the  facts…

You  might  discover  your  idea   is  not  going  to  work.

In  this  case  it  may  be  better  to  ditch  the  idea  in  the   planning  phase  than  to  waste  time  and  money  trying  to  make  it  work.

When  you  are  doing  market  research…

You want to make  sure  your  find  competition.

Multiple people already selling  something  similar  to your  product.

Why?

Because it’s  proof  others have  made  it  work  and  you can  too.

Next step is you  need  to  visit  their  site…

That way you’ll sign  up  for their  email  list.

You may want to buy  their  product.

This gives you direct access to  their emails and follow ups.

You get to see what’s happening in their marketing process.

You can take note  of  the many different  products…

How they’re  offering  products for  sale in their funnel.

Once you have  this  research from other competitors, you get a much better and deeper understanding of  the market dynamics….

And what  you’ll  need  to  get in  place  to  compete successfully.

Not  focusing  on  1  task  until  it gets  done…

Now  you  have  your  market  research  done  and  have  proof  of   concept  there  is  a  healthy  demand  for  your  product…

You  need  to   focus  on  creating  the  product  until  it’s  done.

That  means  100%  done,   not  99%  done.

As  online  entrepreneurs  it’s  easy  to  get  distracted.

You can quickly get sidetracked  by all those bright  shiny  objects.

Designed  to  make  you  part  with  your  hard   earned  money….fast.

You  can’t  sell  anything  until  you  get  it  done.

Don’t  try  to   do  multiple  projects  at  once. Why?

Because  it  will  just  slow  you  down.

In fact, you  only  need  to  have  one  front-­‐end  product  completed  to  build  your business.

Not  using  your  own  branded domain…

You  can’t  judge  a  book  by  it’s  cover,  right?

Yet you  can  judge  an  online  business  by  its  domain  name.

Look, so many entrepreneurs foolishly use  free  hosting  account  or shared  domain  name.

That’s  a  sure  sign  of  an  amateur…

Your  domain  is  your  storefront.

Make  sure  you  have  a  self-­‐hosted  domain  which  reflects  your  business.

This means you choose the right  domain  name…

A name that inspires trust and  confidence  in  your  buyers.

Not  building  your  email  list  from  day  1…

The  lifeblood  of  your  business  is your  email  list.

Think  of  your email list as  your  own  tribe.

And  you  are  their  fearless  leader.

It’s  up  to  you  to  lead   them  to  whatever  results  you  or  your  products  deliver.

Never  be  afraid   to  email  your  list  because  you  know  you  are  providing  value.

Make  email  list  building  your  first  priority  as  soon  as  your  site  is  live.

May I suggest  you  use  Aweber  for  your  email  marketing.

They  have  a  crazy  deal  where  you  can  get  30  days  free.

Even  if  you  don’t  have  your   products  ready  for  sale,  still  get  an  email  form  to  capture  emails  on  your   blog.

Not  building  out  your  funnel…

Now  you  have  your  email  capture  set-up  and  running…

It’s  time  to   review  your  market  research  to  see  what  and  how  your  competitors  are  selling  their  products.

You  need  to  really  look  at  how  they’re positioning  their  products  to  the  market.

What is the angle and hook they’re using to stand out?

Are  they  positioned as the Cadillacs  of  the niche?

Maybe they  have  the  Wal-­Mart  approach and mentality?

You  have  to  figure  out   your  positioning  first…

Yes, before  you  create  a  product.

You  also  need  to  look  at  what  types  of  funnels  your  competitors  are   using.

You don’t want to be modeling their funnel if they’re  losing  money  on  the  front-­end  to  acquire  a  customer, right?

What if they’re promoting high­‐ticket  items  the next  week?

Do  they  make   enough  money  from  the  front-­end  sales?

What if they  don’t  have  a  back-­end   funnel?

Listen, these  are  important  details  you  need  to  consider.

And understand…

Not  focusing  on  recurring  income…

Even  if  you’re  only  selling  ONE  item…

Look  at  how  you  can  take  that  one  time  sale  and  turn  it  into repeat  sales.

Better  yet…

Offer  some  kind  of continuity  program  to  create  recurring  income.

Often  this  is  done  with  a   product  of  the  month,  membership  sites,  newsletters,  or  product  refills.

This  will  be  the  source  of  the  bulk  of  your  long-­‐term  income.

What if  you consider  selling  your business?

Yep, your  recurring  income  and email  list  will  be assets.

Valuable assets that  buyers  want  the  most…

Not  wanting  to  spend  money  on  advertising…

This  is  where  most  entrepreneurs  trip  themselves  up.

You  have  to get over this fear and be willing  to  spend  money.

There is no other faster or more scalable way to  get  your  offer  in  front  of  your  target  audience.

It  is  just  like  in  real  estate…

You’ve heard the saying…location,  location,  location.

You  can’t make  sales  if  buyers  never  see  your  site.

Paid  traffic  should  be a  line item  on  your  cost  of  doing  business.

The  entire  internet  is  based  on  the model  of  using  paid  traffic.

Trying  to  do  the  techie  stuff  yourself…

Funny thing is I’m  a  victim  of  this  myself.

Listen, I  can’t  count  the  times  I  should  have  spent time  growing  the business  instead  of  tweaking  some  code …

Messing with useless plugins on  the  site  or  in  the  shopping  cart.

Don’t  spend  your  valuable time  doing  techie  stuff.

Technology  is always changing and updating the codes…

It’s time consuming and difficult to  learn and keep up.

The worst part is often  you’ll only  use  it  once  or  twice.

Yes, and by the time to learn it, it’s probably already obsolete.

Best part of technology,  it is easy  and  cheap  to  outsource.

Thanks for reading, appreciate you…

John Mignano

Lifestyle Business